How to Catch Common Sunfishes Pt. 2 | Drop-Shot Rig

i know a lot of us anglers love using the drop shot method for bass but it's also a great method for getting common sun fishes we'll go over the easiest way to tie this rig and i'll share my favorite tackle and baits to pair with it [Music] i am cohen this is canned fish and smart swivelly fishers i was learning and sharing knowledge about fishing in fishes and i popped this video to the top of my production list because it's autumn and this is just a great technique to use in this transitional period so let's talk about method two of my favorite common sunfish fishing techniques a simple drop shot rig is designed as an inline rig where a weight rests at the bottom with a hook sitting above that weight with some sort of attractant or bait on that hook it's an ideal rig for getting to the bottom quickly as well as being able to control the location of where you want your bait to be now i spent the last year experimenting with a whole bunch of different ways to tie the drop shot for common sun sunfishes with t knots and various dropper knots with different lures and presentations and i just found that simple is better for this simple rig you'll just need a hook and a drop shot weight as well as your line for the hook you're looking at a light wire hook with an upward facing eye or even a straight eye will work i'll talk more about specific hook brands later and you'll need a dropper weight and really any dropper weight will do even a split shot attached would work but for the best performance and to avoid snags you really want some of these specialized drop shot weights i found these reaction tackle tungsten cylindrical drop shot weights are just great they'll break out of snags and rock crevices really well and tungsten just makes a little bit more thump than lead uh thump being that noise that'll attract the fishes especially on like a gravel bottom plus i'm trying to get away from using lead whenever i can just for those eco-friendly purposes i use both the eighth ounce which is more practical on light gear but i'll also use a quarter ounce when i'm craving more casting distance and that's more typical weight you'll see on the bass rigs and i'll link all mentioned gear down below line wise it's up to you to use a floral carbon leader or not i've used floral leaders and gone without leaders and just use the braided line i spool with and really i haven't noticed a difference in common sunfishes willing or not willing to take a bait because of line visibility now to tie this knot it's just a palomar knot while leaving a really long tag end and feel free to use the chapters on the bottom of this video to skip ahead if you already know how to tie this so start by sliding your line in through the back of the eye then you'll take it right back through the eyelet creating a loop on one side then pull that tag end out about 12 inches or 30 centimeters the drop shot weight will rest on the end of this tag end so that length will really be how far off the bottom your hook sits so i'm usually doing anywhere from 8 to 16 inches depending on how far off the bottom i want to be in that situation then just create an overhand knot with that loop you've created you'll pull that over both the standing end and tag end then toss that loop over your hook and tighten now here's where this knot often gets messed up we don't want line hugging the bottom of that eyelet or around the shank it all needs to be at the top so i use my fingers to pinch the line as i'm tightening to keep it clean and organized if we see now the hook isn't resting in a really nice position for hook setting now it's very important to slide that long tag end through the front of the eyelet or think about it going downwards now the hook is in a more secure upward facing position for the hook set and finally we just tie on that weight and really with these pinch connectors on these tungsten weights no knot is even needed it'll bite down on that line but i'm just an overly cautious person so i just toss a short little overhand knot on the end there and snug it up against the end typically when people are fishing drop shots they're doing it in mostly clear water situations but i don't want you to think that's a definite rule in my opinion the real power of the drop shot is being able to localize a presentation in a specific area so even in heavily stained water that means i can toss it right next to some structure i can just play it around until fish rooms by or is convinced to take a hit [Music] on tough shorelines to fish it's helpful to just get that one cast over the obstacles then play it for a few minutes it's also just a perfect way to sit in pockets between plant patches or along edges or even right in the center of pools and creeks and rivers it's also a great method in the northern latitudes when the big fish really move into deeper warmer water during the colder months you can use a lot of baits on this rig so i'm just gonna share some of the more effective ones that i've tried out as always cut worms and live leeches will do you fantastic i always prefer a smaller presentation to better ensure a hook set i don't like little fishes running off with my bait i prefer that they swallow it and i can set that hook soft plastics are also really great these orange yellow berkley one-inch power nymphs were pretty good at getting hits in stained water they also attracted a lot of small bass also i always have berkeley one-inch fake leeches with me they're just great for common sun fishes i've landed a lot of big specimens with these fake leeches and they are scented perfectly and it's great when live bait isn't allowed or it's illegal to dig on the shoreline and depending on the hook size i'm using i'll even chop these leeches or plastics to be smaller i chopped up this mule fishing plastic it was just a bit big for the left mids i was targeting on the drop shot in this particular situation but the tail end offered a great wiggle so i just used that back end and it worked great i believe it was david newton here on one of our k nfs videos that commented that the mule fishing lures those plastics are more durable than the epfs and yeah those those mule fish and plastics are pretty durable it was hard to tear one by hand and i know in my last video i said i'm telling you my thoughts on those mule fishing lures i am behind on testing those as i blew out my back when i was in michigan i had to cancel my trip northeast and so i've just been doing a lot of sit and wait type fishing been catching some nice catfish but this past week i've become obsessed with catching a koi on this one lake which is proving to be much harder than i thought it would be i am catching a lot of turtles though and nice sized yellow bull heads i'm really enjoying the challenge of catching these skittish koi fish and i'm fattening up the local turtles quite a lot too sorry for the tangent let's get back to common sun fishes so um ratfish 1000 commented here on one of our k nfs videos about using he recommended the bobby garland uh soft plastics and so i remember having used them and i hadn't used them in a while so i picked up a couple of packs of the itty bitty swim r's and i threw them on the drop shot these are uh one and a quarter inch long usually paired with you know your small jigs like 164th or 132nd but i figured hey that looks like it would be fabulous on a drop shot for lepamines sure enough they are really effective on the drop shot and i wacky rigged them most of the time now this is a pool in a clear water creek in virginia and i'm sight fishing right now so i'm twitching it faster than normal to make it harder for the smaller ones to get the bait i caught plenty of nice red breasts here and even a yellow bowl head and this was actually the first time i caught a warmouth on camera underwater i did miss the hook set though but you know that happens but i have been having a lot of fun with those bobby garland baits on the drop shot and uh on our knfs community tab worf tv commented about using shrimp for ready or sunfish a bait i've often used for common sunfishes and on the drop shot it's pretty productive it's pretty hard to keep shrimp on the hook so i suggest using a small amount so it really enters the mouth and doesn't get torn off and also be warned turtles love shrimp so never forget your pliers catfish also love shrimp i also tested out some small clam meat to catch red ear not the best of baits in my opinion but it still worked on the drop shot [Music] so let's finish this one out on the water just so it was nice to be out on the water i found two models from two different brands of the hooks that i like to use and that would be the gamakatsu split shot drop shot and the owner super needle point fine wire mosquito hooks between the two i'd have to say that i was just a bit more satisfied with my ability to hook set on the gamakatsu and that gamakatsu model isn't really a self-setting hook you can see it's an inline hook while the owner fine wire is more of a self-setting hook it's slightly offset though that self-setting fine wire mosquito owner hook isn't going to hook set as often as nicely as if you were doing a typical cast and retrieve with the simmer similar owner mosquito hooks i've recommended before on this channel that's just the nature of the drop shot it's just a bit more challenging to get hook sets and i don't believe they make this gamakatsu model smaller than a size 4 so the owner hooks were just great when i needed these smaller hooks but that size 4 gamakatsu or the size 6 owner are perfect for the larger specimens of the larger to medium species we're talking your bluegill ready or pumpkin seed green long ear war mouth and red breast i'd say for targeting spotted you'd probably want to stick with a size six or eight in for dollar northern and red spotted a size 10 or even smaller is best for targeting most adult specimens and i can't say i've gone for orange spotted or bantam on the drop shot but you need a much smaller hook so the drop shot is not as intuitive as most of your other fishing methods for common sun fishes it takes practice it takes patience it takes a willingness to adapt to different situations and experience really is the best teacher and the one thing i really don't like about the drop shot is that hook setting is more difficult but that is the trade-off you get for having that awesome location control for your presentation and even beyond how you fish this method getting a hook set really comes down to the line you're using such as a sturdier floral versus a flimsy or braided the hook on your rig is it a self-setting hook or not and the knot you've even used to tie that hook sometimes a polymer knot is not going to be the best knot for that rig depending on your hook but ideally to fish the drop shot it's about getting the cast out feeling when the weight hits the bottom and then letting a bit of slack into that line then slowly playing that bait with still a bit of slack i only use those consistent fast twitches like i showed in that creek when i can sight fish and i really don't want the little guys taking the bait but if i'm doing a blind cast most of the time i'll let the bait sit in a spot for a while giving it moderate to light action even letting it sit on the bottom for some time and then lifting it up again and doing that playing if i don't get a hit after a minute or two i'll give it one big tug moving it like three feet and then i'll try to get that reaction bite from anyone that's hesitant and then i'll play it in that new spot for a while my final recommendation for the tackle i like it's going to be a multiple here for the nice size specimens of most common sunfishes live bait has just proven the best for me cutworms and live leeches have outperformed any artificial bait in any season but if we're looking at artificial baits i'm confident to recommend the berkeley fake leeches as they are reliable and they're just really convenient to have and i gotta say i've been really impressed with these bobby garland itty bitty swim mars on the drop shot it's it's hard to find good small plastics the market's just not that big and these are pretty sweet and of course those tungsten uh reaction tackle one-inch weights have been more than i expected performance-wise so when attaching your baits i suggest you try many presentations out find out what bait presentation works best for you personally i find wacky rigging and artificial bait to be very effective round if you keep the bait profile small enough all right if you have any tips on the drop shot anything you want to add lures you've tried that are just great please share that with us down below in the comments i'm actually really curious how many of you actually use the drop shot for common sun fishes it's just so typical for bass fishing all right fish responsibility and good luck hopefully i get my koi i'm trying out new spy

Channel: KN Fishing Smarts

Views: 53,235

Keywords: drop shot panfish, drop shot bluegill, how to tie drop shot, drop shot knot, using dropshot, dropshot common sunfish, how to fish dropshot, how to fish the drop shot, drop shot rig, making drop shot, lures for drop shot, baits for drop shot, shrimp drop shot, garland drop shot, gamakatsu drop shot, owner drop shot

Id: _eh0DS9Zc50

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 13 2021